Centives is sad to report that many of Glee’s main characters will be leaving the show at the end of the season that premieres this Tuesday. Fox has announced that in order to remain realistic, many of the members of the show will be graduating. The third season will focus on who is allowed to graduate and what their future goals may be. In order to help fans out a little bit and stay ahead of the game, Centives decided to calculate the potential for Rachel Berry as she attempts to make it big on Broadway.

In the season 2 finale, Rachel went through an escapade over her dreams of New York living. If she goes through with these plans, and ends up at the epitome of New York City music colleges, she will find herself at The Juilliard School. The cost of going to Julliard for four years at the current tuition rate would be $204,309. This includes tuition, living on campus, and this also assumes that Rachel goes through college for a drama degree. Knowing Rachel and her love for knit sweaters; clothing costs round up the number to an even $205,000.

After graduating from Juilliard, Rachel plans on trying as an actress on Broadway. In New York, the median hourly wage for actors is $17.52 according to New York Wage Information. However Rachel’s gold star status guarantees her a place in the 90th wage percentile in New York and suggests an hourly wage of $50.20 (.zip warning). Since actors’ work is so sporadic, there are no annual salaries. The longest run that an actor normally has in a year is 3-6 months. So assume that Rachel gets a couple of big 3 month long jobs per year and works 40 hours each of those weeks. She would only make $48,192 each year. If her employment records remained the same, it would take Rachel more than 4 years to fully pay off her bills at Julliard and break-even; and that’s assuming that there’s no interest on her loans.

It seems to Centives, that Rachel leaving the show is financially problematic. She will be leaving the comfort of her family in order to become a poor college student, and then a struggling Broadway actress. It would take Rachel Berry 49 years to equal the net worth of the actress that portrays her now. No matter how big of a star Rachel may see herself to be, she is unlikely to surpass the success of Lea Michelle.

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